China is stepping up an effort to expand its influence in the Pacific. Having sealed a deal with the Solomon Islands, it is now negotiating security pacts with two other island nations, according to US officials and allied countries.
According to these sources, Beijing’s discussions are more advanced with Kiritibati, a Pacific island nation located 3,000 kilometers from Hawaii and home to the US Indo-Pacific Command.
An intelligence official from a US-allied country said, on condition of anonymity, that Beijing is also in talks with at least one other Pacific island country with a view to a pact that will cover more or less the same ground as the agreement reached with the Solomon Islands.
The warning that Beijing is trying to expand its influence in the Pacific comes as President Joe Biden visits Asia in a move to reassure allies of commitment to regional security amid China’s campaign to extend its influence. .
The talks with Kiribati follow the pact Beijing signed with the Solomon Islands, which some experts say will let China build a naval base in the country to the northeast of Australia. According to a draft leaked in March, the pact with the Solomons will allow China to even send military forces to the islands, which has shocked the US and its allies in the Indo-Pacific, from Australia and New Zealand to Japan.
A US official said China has had its eye on Kiribati for a long time, with intermittent discussions not months but years, with the aim of creating a strategic presence in island nations.
Michael Foon, Kiribati’s foreign secretary, denied that his government was involved “in discussions with any partner about a security agreement”. Opposition leader Tessie Eria Lambourne said she was unaware of the discussions but that her country’s rapidly changing relationship with China was worrying the public. “We are next in line in Beijing’s plan to establish its military presence at strategic points in the region,” she said.
The pact with the Solomon Islands helped make geopolitical tensions with China a central issue in Saturday’s election in Australia, which the opposition won. Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi is expected to head a large delegation that will visit the islands next week.
In yet another sign that Beijing is stepping up efforts to expand its presence in the region, China on Friday struck a deal with Vanuatu to modernize an international airport in Luganville, which was a key US military base during World War II. .
A State Department official said on condition of anonymity that the US takes concerns about security pacts, including those with Kiribati, very seriously and noted that there were fears that China was also negotiating with Tonga and Vanuatu.
Beijing has security agreements with other countries in the region, including Fiji and Papua New Guinea, but diplomats and security officials said the Solomon Islands deal was far more far-reaching — and that China may have greater ambitions in Kiribati.
Beijing operated a space tracking station in the country until 2003, when the two parties broke up after Kiribati established diplomatic relations with Taiwan.
Since 2019, when the country reversed allegiance from Taipei to Beijing, diplomats have been looking for signs that the tracking station could be reopened. Experts say that major advances in China’s military capabilities over the past two decades would make a Chinese air force or navy base or presence near Hawaii even more significant today.
China is also cooperating with Kiribati to modernize an airstrip on Kanton Island.
Tess Newton Cain, an expert on Pacific affairs at Griffith University in Australia, said the pact with the Solomon Islands and the strengthening of ties with Kiribati reflected the trend towards a new phase of Chinese engagement. “These are recent relationships that have been advancing very quickly,” she says. “It’s different from what we see in other parts of the region, where there are more mature relationships.”
The Chinese Foreign Ministry did not respond to requests for comment.
